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All About Direct to Object Cylinder Printers

Drinkware printing knows no bounds when it comes to decorating glass, plastic, stainless steel, and silicone vessels. High-quality prints are achievable on direct to object cylinder printers in the form of pad printers, screen printers or digital cylindrical printers. Personalization and customization trends hold strong, and drinkware is widely used in a range of industries including commercial, hospitality, and sports. Pad printing and screen-printing offer low costs to print bold one to six color logo designs on mugs while UV digital cylinder printers offer full-color, full coverage, high resolution prints on a variety of drinkware vessels for promotional or personalization needs. Inkcups offers a full lineup of pad printers, UV cylindrical printers, UV flatbed printers, pre-treatment systems for glass and plastics, as well as corresponding inks, parts, and supplies.

What are Direct to Object (DTO) Drinkware Printing Methods?

There are three leading methods of direct to object printing on drinkware: pad printing on drinkware, screen printing on drinkware, and digitally printing on drinkware. Each of the three methods has benefits over their rivals simultaneously exposing limitations of the other methods.

Direct-To-Object Printing Methods

Pad Printing on Drinkware

Better brand your establishment by pad printing your logo on your barware. Pint glasses, wine glasses, tasting flight glasses, and other assorted pieces of barware make for an excellent surface for pad printing bold logos. Pad printing is often considered a direct to container printing method.

1-Color Pad Printers

Pad printers for 1-color are excellent for applications that require single-color, small-scale images between 80- 190 mm. Ideal drinkware for 1-color pad printers includes mugs and promotional cups for sporting events.

1-Color Pad Printers for Drinkware

2-Color DTO Pad Printing Machines

Print either 1- or 2-color logos on glasses for beer, wine glasses, or disposable cups with pad printers equipped with two pads, two ink cups, and two plates.

2-Color Pad Printers

4- to 6-Color Pad Printers for DTO

Our pad printers come in numerous orientations, print four, five, or six color logos and designs with our pad printers equipped with more pads. Print on ceramic mugs with four colors to really have your branding pop!

4-Color Pad Printers

Growlers

Pad print on growler bottles to keep up with the demand in the tap room.

Learn about the B150

Ceramic Mugs

Mugs are typically a tricky piece of drinkware to print on due to their handle. Keep costs down but branding up by pad printing on mugs with bright and bold logos.

Learn about the ICN-2200PS

Screen Printing on Drinkware

pad printed shot glass

Screen printing, while commonly associated with printing on garments, can be used on drinkware. Screen print on glass, plastic, or metal vessels much like screen printing on apparel, it is the process of utilizing a screen to transfer the inverse of an image directly to a 3-dimensional object. However, this process if often difficult on non-porous materials as the ink is prone to bleeding and bubbling if excess ink is used. Screen printing offers printing one- or two-color images easily, but higher count color images require extremely precise alignment making it incredibly difficult.

 

Digital Printing on Drinkware with Cylindrical Inkjet Printers

Whether you refer to drinkware printers as cylindrical inkjet printers, rotary printing machines, or direct to bottle printers, the concept is still the same: digitally print full color stunning graphics on cylindrical vessels that are either straight walled or slightly tapered. The drinkware vessel types that cylinder printers can accommodate is endless, from shot glasses to growlers and everything in between.

Cylindrical Inkjet Printer: Helix®

The Helix® digital cylinder printer, Inkcups’ flagship machine pairs speed with image quality due to its patented Helix® software available throughout the line of Helix® printers. Create custom, full color (CMYKWW + varnish) images fit for a wide range of industries. A key consumable for UV cylindrical printers is UV ink. The material of the drinkware to be printed on will determine which of the UV inks will promote the best adhesion properties once properly pre-treated.

Learn about the Helix®

Extended Range Kit for Helix®

Increase the diameter of cylindrical products to print on with the extended range kit, print on parts with a diameter as small as 1.5” (38 mm) to as wide as 5.0” (127 mm). Add this kit to your new Helix® machine or to your existing Helix®.

TPC for Printing on Clear Vessels

Transparent pin curing, or TPC is a field upgradable accessory for the Helix® line of printing machines that prolongs the lifespan of print heads by blocking UV rays during the printing process.

Say goodbye to the days of stuffing drinkware with a foxtail!

Integrated Pre-Treatment

Corona treatment is a pre-treatment system integrated into the print cycle of the Helix® line of printers to promote adhesion and remove any foreign objects on the surface of the drinkware. Often, the Corona treatment eliminates the need for additional pre-treatment methods such as flame pretreatment or the use of a primer.

UV Ink Adhesion Improvement Components

Double Helix® Cylinder Printer for Drinkware

The Double Helix® offers all the features of the Helix® but double the output. How does it accomplish that? Two print fixtures allow for double the production volume better answering the needs of industries that need the speed, medium to high production runs, like the craft brew market, barware market, spirit market, candle market, and more. The Double Helix® can print full coverage, 360°, seamless graphics on parts up to 8.6” long. Print on cans, stainless tumblers, water bottles, stadium cups, wine tumblers, and even other cylindrical items like candle holders.

Application Spotlight: Printing on Candle Holders

Learn about the Double Helix®

Print Innovation

Through Helical technology, innovative and eye-catching print techniques can be achieved. Elevate your brand by offering the most stunning prints with any of the Inkcups’ Helix® line of cylindrical printers.

Mirror Print

View artwork inside and out with mirror print. This print technique works with clear substrates like glass and plastic. The use of a layer of white ink between two layers of color creates a mirror image of the artwork on the interior and exterior of the glass.

Learn about Mirror Print

Lustre Effect for the Helix® Line of Printers

Lustre Effect enables the printing of decorative metallic-looking embellishments on aluminum, stainless, and other metal cylindrical vessels.

Learn more about Lustre Effect

Tone-on-Tone

Tone on tone can be achieved on any substrate unlike other print techniques like mirror print. To achieve tone on tone, white is not used. This print technique uses either varnish or a low opacity color to bring out the actual color of substrate, for example, an aluminum tumbler. Tone on tone printed on glass resembles embossing.

Learn about Tone-on-Tone

Full Coverage

Decorate your drinkware its entire length, called full coverage, thanks to the Helix® top-to-bottom technology. This also includes the ability to print full wrap, seamless graphics around the entire 360° of the cylinders.

Photorealistic

With the use of two additional colors, light cyan and light magenta the Helix® can achieve higher resolution, photorealistic graphics with an unparalleled ability for skin-tone matching. Perfect for print-on-demand companies offering services of digitally printing photographs onto glassware.

Contour Print

Give glassware a highly appealing textured 3D feel with contour print. This print technique layers ink to give it that depth.

Stained Glass & Etched Feature on Glass

Adjust color setting to achieve print techniques such as stained glass and etch. Etch achievable on a digital cylindrical printer mimics the etching of glass using a laser through printing with only white at a lower opacity on glass and skipping varnish.

Stained glass, achievable like that of Etch, but uses color at a lower opacity. This mimics stained glass in windows, allowing light to shine through.

High-speed Cylindrical Inkjet Printer: Revolution®

For large volume production runs opt for the high-speed digital cylinder printer, the Revolution®. With 12 stations, automatic load and unload, integrated pre-treatment, the Revolution can print up to 600 parts per hour. The Revolution® prints CMYK at a single station, unlike other printers, which achieves excellent print quality and color reproduction due to the highly accurate dot placement.

Learn about the Revolution®

Stadium Cups

Stadium cups are often used at sporting events, trendy outdoor restaurants and bars, weddings, and mass get-togethers like family reunions. They’re typically made of a food-grade medium to heavy weight plastic and are reusable.

Cylindrical Printer for Stadium Cups: Revolution

Pint Glasses

Have you ever noticed that beer is always served in glass from breweries? Serving beer in a pint glass offers the best view of the beer’s color and clarity, as well as the foam formed from the release of carbonation. Additionally, glass is a more inert material than plastic or aluminum, therefor less likely to impact the taste of your drink.  Personalize 16 oz pint glasses with your logo, custom artwork, or even a photo. Pint glasses make for a great souvenir for the craft brewery crowd.

How to Print on Glass

Paper Disposable Cups

Print on paper or plastic disposable cups with either a pad printer or UV cylindrical printer. Disposable cups are extremely lightweight and make a for a great candidate for printing with the Revolution® with automatic load and unload as they could easily be caught by a cardboard box on the receiving end.

Stemless Wine Glass

Stemless wine glasses have become increasingly popular over the years as it became evident that they are less breakable than their predecessor. Print any of the design techniques on a stemless wine glass to elevate your business.

Learn about DL Series UV Ink for Glass

Stainless Steel Tumbler

Stainless-steel tumblers make for an excellent surface to utilize Lustre Effect. Print metallic graphics on the stainless-steel vessel with just a hint of the substrate shining through for a jaw dropping effect.

Print on stainless-steel with the S1 UV Inkjet Ink

Coated Metals

Coated metals are often a tricky substrate to print on, but with the help of the proper primer and ink, we can get ink to stick with excellent adhesion. One of our newest primers, XF Primer, promotes adhesion for UV inks on powder coated and metals vessels.

Rocks Glasses

Bottoms up! Impress customers with the ability to print on the flat bottom of rocks glasses. This design technique is unique to cylindrical printing as the flat surface of the bottom of the glass is perfect for UV flatbed printers, such as the X5® and X5-T. A form of mirror print allows for the image to be seen through the bottom of the glass while sipping.

Water Bottles and Sports Bottles

Sustainability trends are phasing out single use plastic water bottles and promoting aluminum, glass, and recyclable plastic water bottles, as well as assorted sports bottles. Sports bottles differ from water bottles as often they flex to accommodate fitting into a water bottle mount on a bicycle.  UV digital inks like XFLEXX and BB ultra-flexible inks will bend and fold on flexible substrates without cracking, peeling, or distorting the print. Decorate bottles by inkjet printing full-color images.

Learn about UV Inkjet Printing on Sports Bottles

Shot glass → Growler

Cylindrical printers are known for the wide variety of drinkware they can accommodate, but recently the list of vessels expanded! The extended range kit allows the Helix® to print on small diameter substrates, like shot glasses. Much like other drinkware available, shot glasses are available in multiple variations of shape, size, and volume.

The extended range kit also increases the diameter, allowing the Helix to print on wider diameter vessels like growlers and three-wick candle holders.

Inkjet Printing for Shot Glasses: Featuring the Helix®

Digitally Print on Drinkware

Digital direct to object printers can decorate a wide variety of drinkware vessels in an efficient manner. Pad printing, screen printing, and dye sublimation, while offer quality prints cannot compare to the design techniques nor output speeds of digital cylindrical printers. The benefits of digital printing are unparalleled.

Watch: Why go Digital with Inkcups Video Series

Enhance your Digital Printing Process

The digital printing process has been avenues available to travel down to make the process easier. Save time and money by exploring all the solutions Inkcups has come up with. All our UV cylindrical printers can be paired with automation, whether by robot or art preparation software.  On top of that, Inkcups has created a print on demand workflow that can be integrated into any order management system to streamline the process.

Learn how to Automate your Print on Demand Process

Automation

Robotic systems can streamline the printing process by loading and unloading drinkware to and from cylindrical inkjet printing machines.

Learn more with Inkcups’ Mechanical Engineer’s Automation Q&A

ArtPrep®

ArtPrep® is an artwork preparation software that offers both cost and time savings. Artwork needs to be prepared to print, which for a print-on-demand company can be a daunting task. ArtPrep® prepares each piece of artwork by adding in the additional layers necessary for a high-quality print: a layer of primer, a layer of white ink, a layer of color, and an optional layer of varnish. Then, when the imaged is ripped, these newly created layers tell the printer where and how to each print head should lay down the ink.

Learn more about ArtPrep®

Print on Demand Workflow

Print on demand is a newer concept of printing on products as they are ordered. This workflow is beneficial to both the customer and business. With print on demand businesses can offer more products for customers to personalize, while reducing back stock and large inventory orders.

Print on Demand Drinkware Solutions

Inkcups Complete Solution to Printing on Glass

Inkcups offers a complete solution to printing on glass. Printing on glass isn’t a simple process and requires a pre-treatment process. After the annealing process, glassware is sprayed with either a hot-end coating or a cold-end coating to protect the glass during transit. However, this creates a surface that is difficult for ink to stick to. By adding a pre-treatment method to your printing process you will promote adhesion properties by removing the hot-end or cold-end coating, as well as burn off the hydrophilic surface. Additionally, pre-treatment methods that utilize a flame, like the AutoFlame360 remove any additional dirt and debris from the surface.

MagiCoat® Pre-treatment System to Helix® Process

Here at Inkcups we believe in seeing the job through in its entirety. Printing on glass with long lasting adhesion properties requires pre-treatment. Pair your Helix®, Double Helix®, or Revolution® with a MagiCoat® pre-treatment system, otherwise referred to as MPS for the complete package. For best adhesion properties pre-treat glassware then follow by printing on drinkware. The pre-treatment process ensures that the drinkware will be able to withstand up to 200 residential washes or up to 600 industrial washes.

AutoFlame360

Flame treatment machine, the AutoFlame360 enhances ink adhesion on glass through the manipulation of surface tension. The 8-station industrial machine vacuum seals bottles to the individually rotating palette

MagiCoat®

Compared to other methods of pre-treatment MagiCoat® is one of the safest pre-treatment options available. Read about the compliance testing that MagiCoat® Liquid Part A and B passed in the Learning Center. This pre-treatment system is efficient, pre-treating up to 15 items per minute with its 8 individually rotating stations visiting 3 flaming stations with 6 flaming heads.

Call to Compliance: MagiCoat®

Inkcups Global Support

Inkcups support is unparalleled. We offer support globally in person, remote, and on call. We realize how valuable time is, and we are proud to say we solve 90% of cases same day. On top of the personalized support you can receive, we have a wealth of knowledge though out our website in our Learning Center as well as the Support Hub.

Learn more about Inkcups Technical Support

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